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Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Chicken & Ham Pie

There is nothing like a pie that screams comfort food! I love pastry far too much and its a very rare treat when I do have it. Finding a way of having real puff pastry without eating into my weekly propoints is always welcome. I'm a big fan of the Hairy Dieters Tangle Pie, but I find there is a lot of waste when using filo pastry and not using the whole pack. So cooking with it for only 2 people isn't really an option. Jus-rol do low fat puff pastry. It will only save you a point or so, but sure every point counts at the end of the day.

I wanted to use bacon for this but also save on propoints, and Brady Family Ham do a great smokey bacon flavour torn ham. It comes in individual 65g pots and 2 pots comes in at 3pp. It works great in this recipe but is also a fab addition to omelettes and salads.

Pies might seem like they are a lot of work, but this was easy enough to whip up mid week. The individual pie dishes are a great investment for those of us that are cooking for more than one person where the others may not be as concerned with the calorie content. I can be a little bit more careful of the pastry portion on my pie and a bit more generous with his. To get 50g of pastry to fit on my pie dish I did have to roll it super thin. It was still nice and flaky but I definitely lost a few layers. I smaller, deeper pie dish would solve that problem pretty easily.

Preheat the oven to 180C and heat the oil in a pan. Fry the onion and garlic over a low heat until soft. Add the chicken and brown on all sides before frying off the BNS squash for a couple of minutes. Add the flour and cook, stirring continuously, for 2-3 minutes before adding the stock and the thyme. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes until the sauce has thickend, the BNS is tender and the chicken cooked through. Stir in the cream, ham and season to taste.

Divide the mixture between two pie dishes and top each with 50g of low fat puff pastry. Brush the pastry with a little bit of milk or egg white and cook in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.